Chapter 1 – Introduction to Management

1) Management was, is, and always will be the same thing: “the art of getting
things done”. Do you agree? Why or why not?

I agree in the above statement that management will always be the art of getting
things done. In fact, Griffin (2016) mentioned in his book “Fundamentals of
Management, 8th Edition” the four basic management activities which are planning and
decision making, organizing, controlling, and leading. Furthermore, regardless of the
level of management either top manager, middle manager, or first line manager, these
basic management functions are very crucial. To further illustrate my stand, let me give
a scenario.

I am the manager of a company and as mentioned before, I was involved in the

four basic management activities. We all know that a company operates for a purpose.
However, a company cannot operate and achieve its purpose without doing
management process. As a manager, it is my job to set my company’s goals and create
guides on how to achieve them in the planning and decision-making stage. Also, it is my
duty to form groups of people and allocate resources to them in the organizing part.
However, as a good manager, I should not treat my workers as slaves, but I must
motivate my subordinates in doing things right for the company in the leading process.
Lastly, it is my duty as the manager to monitor, make corrections or adjustments if
needed, and assess the goal attainment of the company in the controlling part.

Management is indeed the art of getting things done. Without management,

nothing will start and if nothing will be started, obviously nothing will be done.
2) In today’s environment, which is more important to the organization –
efficiency or effectiveness? Explain your choice.

As mentioned in our previous discussion, both efficiency and effectiveness are

equally important in every organization. Peter Drucker explained that efficiency is doing
things right while effectiveness is doing the right thing.

In an organization, it is said to be efficient if it was able to minimize cost and

maximize profits. On the other hand, an organization is effective if it was able to sell its
products to the customer either by reaching the customers, marketing the business,
meeting the demands, and solving customer problems.

In today’s environment, organization tend to be more effective than to be more

efficient. It is more important for an organization to be able to sell its product to the
customers than to minimize cost. The more products that an organization sell, the more
successful it will be. There are lots of competitors in every industry, so no matter how
efficient your business is, it will all be in vain if no one purchase from it.

A good example is when buying between Brand X worth P5 and a known brand
worth P7. In this scenario, people will still prefer to buy the known brand worth P7
because the way they reach their customer is more effective than the Brand X, though
not much efficient. Another example is when hiring between a low salary girl and a high
salary beautiful girl in a beauty products store. Although, it is more efficient to hire a low
salary girl, but an organization will still hire the high salary beautiful girl because she is
more effective in selling their beauty products.

It is important to be efficient and at the same time effective in every business.

Efficiency allows the organization to do lots of things in a short period of time with little
resources. However, effectiveness only let you do little things but more worthy in that
span of time and limited resources. In efficiency, it gives hope to the company to be
successful. However, effectiveness ensure that the organization’s goals will be realize.

Remember, there is no unknown brand in the world that is successful.

 Reference List

Griffin Ricky (2016). Fundamentals of Management, 8th edition, : Cengage Learning.